Bad experience plus one

August 23, 2006 at 4:44 pm | Posted in All My WIP | 1 Comment

It has been quite a while since last time I spent more than 2 hours outside home. And I was waiting in the foreigner office for almost 4 hours without having my resident permit extended!

We arrived the office before it is open. I already got bad feelings when we found out the lady who is usually in charge of my file is on vacation. That lady is the best and the nicest. I was assigned to another one. There are only 3 people assigned to the same clerk before me, but it took us more than 3 hours to get in the room. The picture above shows how long I’ve been waiting there. Another clerk had processed 7-8 cases before my number was called.

Overtime waiting is just the beginning. The clerk start to act picky immediately after she got my passport. Things got worse when she read the admission letter. She called the university to confirm my status, which is already shown in her computer. After the call, she simply refused to issue the extension. She hadn’t even open my file yet! My friend, the interpreter, said to her that he got his own resident permit when he was not registered in the school. Her reply was that it just didn’t work in HER way. She also insisted to make a copy of my admission letter after the rejection. I was really confused….are the rules/laws all defined by her?

I could always print out the rules and mention existing cases when I discussed with officials in Canada. I used to obtain my new health card after I showed my print-outs to the clerk who almost refused to issue me one. Obviously, things do not work in this way in Germany. Each visa official has its own way to explain the law. Most officials in this city are just unhappy about foreigners staying here.

What an unfriendly place!